Zuma Resigns As South African President, Ending Standoff With Ruling Party

CAPE TOWN: South Africa’s embattled president, Jacob Zuma, resigned on Wednesday, putting an end to a period of scandal and mismanagement that threatened to destroy the party of Nelson Mandela.

Zuma’s resignation leaves his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, as the country’s acting leader, and a man now charged with salvaging the legacy of Africa’s most famous liberation movement.

Zuma was once revered as a hero of that movement, who served as a political prisoner alongside Mandela in his youth. But Zuma’s nine years in power, marred by a string of corruption allegations, drove even party loyalists away from the once seemingly indefatigable African National Congress (ANC).

But to many here, the most destructive aspect of Zuma’s legacy was his failure to deliver on the promises of post-apartheid South Africa. Twenty-four years after Mandela rose to power, promising a rainbow nation of shared prosperity, South Africa remains one of the world’s most unequal countries,…